Legion's Shield
by ptl
Summary: There are rumors that the Astral Plane connects to other worlds other than Earth. Neuron Officer Hikari Howard discovers this after falling through a "wave". Now, the only hope she has to return home is to ally herself with the Shield Hero. Expect gray ideology clashes and synergetic stylish combat in this new extradimensional adventure!
1. File 1

Hikari Howard felt like falling.

Not an unusual feeling by itself, due to being used to it with the trips between the Ark and the Astral Plane as well as occasionally falling in the latter.

Problem is she didn't remember falling unconscious.

She opened her eyes, only to see some kind of falling and armed zombie coming towards her.

"Crap!" she cursed while summoning her Arm Legion to punch it away from her. She used that momentaneous respite to watch her surroundings. Various types of monsters were also falling in large numbers and the sky was unnaturally red.

She immediately looked upwards, only to see something that made her skin crawl.

Up in the sky, there were fissures from which the monsters came that reminded of gates, only that these had psychedelic colors and patterns, lacking the cubism of the red and black portals to the accursed digital hell. Not to say that these monsters didn't resemble chimeras at all, more like zombies, trolls and other fantasy like creatures. While the Astral Plane gives its chimeras the form of mythological beings, they looked otherworldly enough to not completely resemble typical fantasy designs, not to say about the sense of wrongness they exude due to their corrupting influence towards reality.

This wasn't the Astral Plane, at least.

She checked downwards. There was some countryside landscape with a village that wouldn't be out of place in the Middle Ages or in one of the fantasy novels she likes to read, and it was obviously under attack from those monsters, if the fires and the far away but rapidly approaching screams are any indication.

That also means she wasn't in the Ark either. And she didn't hold her hopes that she was in one of the very few mainland areas left without redshift. The Astral Plane was interested in assimilating life, especially sapient. Even if they survived the initial global outbreak, without an effective means to defend themselves from the chimeras or to prevent redshifting, they would be as good as dead. So, that left with a crazy-but-no-so-improbable theory.

She was in another world.

Normal people would just laugh at her, but when dealing with invisible extradimensional monsters hellbent on corrupting everything and everyone into data on a daily basis while using neurologically-linked captured versions of said monsters, skepticism wasn't an option.

Just now, she has to survive the fall without being squashed towards the ground or killed by the beasts. She would search answers after.

She stabilized herself on a proper freefall position while her Legions took care of any close monsters by shooting, slashing or just punching them.

**Legion's Shield**

It wasn't Jules day, neither for the village.

Everyone knew that things were more difficult with the appearance of the waves. Melromarc already suffered with the first one, both with the civilians at that now ruined demi-human village as well as the soldiers sent to subjugate the interdimensional invasion.

The worst thing is that it exacerbated everything bad happening in the kingdom, prompting the king Aultcray Melromarc XXXII to summon the Legendary Four Cardinal Heroes, very probably putting his country on a very delicate situation in international politics, especially while the queen Mirellia Q Melromarc was away to discuss the Hero summonings with the other nations.

And right now, the second Wave was raining its malice to the underprepared farming village of Rute, Jules being just one of the victims.

He was just a simple farmer, what the hell did he do to deserve this?! That must be one of the only things in his mind right now. The other was to just run away in search for a safe zone.

Unfortunately, he didn't watch were he was for he crashed into something, which made him fall backwards to the ground. After grimacing from the impact, he observed what he bumped into.

He regretted it.

The "thing" he bumped into was an ogre-like zombie, which right now was slowly moving to kill the poor fool that met its way.

Jules couldn't only move backwards, unable to stand up due to his fear, until he met a nearby wall.

"Shit!" he cursed. He couldn't do anything, he wasn't much of a fighter. The only thing he could was watch his would be killer prepare its monstrous arm to crush him like a mere insect.

He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes, to run, but wasn't unable to do those things, so he desperately prayed to God. For help. For a Hero.

Then there was a loud noise of smashing and a rain of blood and guts.

_AN: Cliffhangers!_

_This project was another of the crossovers I wish to realize in the setting of Rising of the Shield Hero: postapocalyptic cyberpunk policewoman with a Stand-like entity from a anime-like stylish action game put into a cruel RPG-like dark high fantasy world from an isekai light novel/manga/anime with a morally questionable protagonist who can only defend? Yup. The protagonists will bicker a lot with tons of points in each side's favour._

_Except with money, they will both agree to try to obtain more money and resources. Astral Chain players like me know the pain of upgrading Legions and the X-Baton. Especially with rare and premium Material Codes._

_Not to say that the Astral Plane gives me an excuse to connect various worlds in Astral Chain crossovers. Who is to say that it didn't try to corrupt and repurpose other planets that weren't Earth?_

_I'm still playing the game, but this story takes place months after the Aether fight, so the player character is and will be more of a badass, especially with stat bonuses and level ups._

_By the way, this is the first Astral Chain crossover in , so please, try to write some and comment._


	2. File 2 and Omake

Jules reactively covered himself with an arm against the splashing gore that resulted from an unknown object crashing into the giant zombie that was mere moments from killing him. Unfortunately, some of it landed on his face. Yuck.

After trying to clean himself off the rotten guts, he instead looked to whatever saved him. The results… weren't what he expected.

On its knees and with giant sword (or axe, he wasn't sure) on hand, there was a blue and white armored humanoid, up and including armor skirt and a headpiece. It moved its head towards him, revealing its glowing blue eyes and letting out a growl as if on confirmation or something.

It was a monster. That Jules was sure of it, but it wasn't like any other monster he's seen or ever heard of, and it seemed… kinda off. Maybe it's fact that it didn't attack him yet or the giant hole in its chest with a floating object inside but he isn't so sure.

Oh, and there was someone on its back, who just dismounted of the off-putting monster. It was a young woman, probably in her early 20s. She also had one of the weirdest attires he just have ever seen: a heavy looking purple jacket with red armor in the chest, arms and knees as well as pocket holsters in her belt and left leg. Curiously, there was a translucent blue chain in her left arm that connects with the monster's neck, so maybe she was a tamer of some sort.

But the most shocking thing was in her head. Her ponytailed hair and eyes were shining with azure power as well as bright blue veins in her neck and face. That only serves to agree to his theory that those two **might** not be of this world. Especially with the wave that is happening right now.

The girl talked, but it wasn't in a language he knew. The girl talked again, probably taking on his confusion judging by her tone and expression.

Jules was just silently watching, alternating between her and the creature, in shock from all those quick changes of events.

The girl blinked, then watched over her beast, then at Jules, as if surprised by something. Then the beast disappeared, with the floating thing that was on its chest returning to some kind of device on the girl's left arm, same with the chain.

After the unsummoning, the girl's hair turned reddish-brown and her eyes, silver. The blue veins also disappeared.

The girl now kneeled towards him and offered a hand. Even if he didn't understand her language, he at least understood the gesture and accepted it. The girl then proceeded to put him on his feet, even if his legs were still trembling a little.

"T-thanks" he nodded in gratitude. It was obvious that she didn't understand what he said but caught on with his sentiment and nodded in return.

Suddenly, more zombies landed around them, as well as those that were already on land. The girl immediately took out an strange item that extended itself, like a baton of sorts and with a battlecry, promptly beheaded the nearest zombie, despite the apparent bluntness of the weapon. Then her weapon transformed and took on some crossbow looking form which she used to shoot blue energy bolts towards the monsters that blocked their exit.

The girl shouted to him, gesturing towards the hole in enemy files. Catching on that, Jules remembered his previous objective of running away and gladly took the opportunity.

He looked away once outside the ring, only to see the monsters being quickly fell down. He shook his head. He just hopes that his savior also gets out of there safe.

**Legion's Shield**

Hikari saw the civilian run away.

While she was falling, she had the idea to use her Axe Legion to soften the landing. Even while the majority of members of the police undergo genetic therapy and intense physical conditioning in order to battle aberrations and chimeras, as well as survive damage that could have killed a normal human various times over, that obviously doesn't mean she'd just simply fall on her feet like when she jumps out of the helicopter, especially if you're dropped hundreds of meters in the sky.

Landing on a zombie that was about to kill someone was a split-second decision that saved a life as well as helped cushion the Legion-assisted landing strategy.

Right now, she's fighting the monsters that are attacking the village. Correction. She's _exterminating _them.

"_Even aberrations put much more of a fight than those things."_

For the zombie and locust hordes she uses primarily 360º AoE attacks, whether with the artillery support of the Arm and Arrow Legions or just lashing her Sword and Axe Legions as kusarigamas, with the occasional Hit Rush for the extra helpful Legion.

As she finished the current wave, a horde of the ogre-like zombies came, ready to brute force through any resistance.

"I don't have time for this." grunted Hikari.

She unchained Axe for a Hit Rush while she encased herself inside Arm, unleashing a huge arsenal of explosive energy blasts that decimated the giant mooks, with any struggler felling against the short-lived manifestation of Axe.

She dematerialised Arm, taking a moment to take a breath.

She looked towards the sky and sighed. Despite the differences, the similitude was astounding: dimensional gates bringing in killer monsters of another dimension as well as destruction and death everywhere. Not even other universes are save from that.

"Just like any other day on the job." She said resigned. While she and Neuron were doing a great job battling chimeras, that doesn't mean they can save anyone. Aberrations may be weaker but they were normal people that were corrupted into digital zombies against their wills and those brought to the Astral Plane cannot even be put to rest, condemned to forever be computer resources until their data is formed into chimeras that would eventually be destroyed in each incursion against the defenders of humanity. It was a grim reminder of their situation, but it was necessary to kill them if they were to live another day in what little territory they have habitable.

She shook her head and just run in search of survivors. She just hoped that those new gates didn't bring any sort of infectious corruption like in the zombies.

Though that begs the question, how was it possible for a normal person to see a Legion without a Legatus, a special camera or even corruption?

**Legion's Shield**

Naofumi Iwatani cursed.

Since arriving to that world, he has been hated by others. What he was expecting as a typical and fantastical isekai was gone down the toilet when Myne deceived him, accusing him of a rape he didn't do, ruining his reputation and alienating him from the other Heroes and the kingdom, especially Motoyasu.

The bastard is now at the mercy of that goddamn bitch Myne like a lovestruck idiot. He swears she now has the Spear Hero at her beck and call and that flirt doesn't even realize her manipulative nature!

He must be a hypocrite or an ignorant of the highest order to be that submissive towards that girl after being killed by two yandere girlfriends that he was double timing. And the pervert still insists in making a harem!

And all this? Just because of that Shield. Not only it didn't give him any attack options but everyone either ridicules it or just plain hate it as the Devil's symbol.

The hypocrites… they normally use shields but just repude the only one of the saviors of their world who can only use one!

Because of his now shitty reputation, he was forced to buy a slave in order to level up and survive, so that he can help destroy the Waves and leave this shitty world.

And right now, he's been transported to the place the current Wave was happening. Unfortunately, there was an inhabited village they visited some weeks before that is now the center of attention of the monsters and the happy-go-lucky Heroes just skipped directly to the boss, without leaving any reinforcements to the village.

Those people… are they even aware this isn't a game where they could escape consequences?

Even he, who hates and is hated by this world, wasn't cold hearted enough to leave defenseless villagers to their deaths, especially not those who at least treated him neutrally, not like the majority at the capital.

"Master Naofumi, wait up!" a young woman with raccoon ears and tail called out to him while they were running. She was Raphtalia, the slave he bought in order to defend himself. At the beginning, she was a sick and cowardly mess so Naofumi made her medicine and forced her to learn to fight, unless they were to die. He also took care of her when she had nightmares, fed her, bought her toys and helped her surpass her trauma by mutually defeating the Two-Headed Dog that attacked them while visiting some mines, winning her undying loyalty in the process. As well as a crush.

Unfortunately, Naofumi was so jaded from the trauma that he couldn't trust anyone other than slaves, especially women. The owner of the weapons shop was an exception though, having helped him after the rumors kicked in.

That same trauma also made him lose his sense of taste as well as ignoring Raphtalia's quick growing, still viewing her as a child. To clarify, demihumans of that world can experience accelerating aging until young adulthood if they quickly level up various levels at childhood or puberty, especially if they're partnered with a Hero, who can multiply his and his party's experience by 10.

Quite a shame, having an attractive companion and somehow ignoring various aspects about her due to the same trauma induced by the betrayal and the unfair trial.

But right now, their priority was the village, Lute if they remembered correctly, that was being attacked by the monsters. They can even hear the sounds of weapons clashing and... explosions?

Do the villagers or the monsters have some explosives or similar magic?

Now that Naofumi observes closely, there were some blue sparkles in the village, especially when there are explosions, as well as some blue projectiles that were hitting the flying monsters. Wait, there was something coming towards them through the air.

"Naphtalia, dodge!" Naofumi ordered. It was easy for the two of them as the object didn't do anything to correct its trajectory, not it seemed to have been aimed at them, so it crashed the earth like a sack of potatoes.

They discovered that it was a giant zombie-like creature, whose body showed numerous blunt trauma, like it was punched numerous times with great force.

"What was that, Master Naofumi?" asked Raphtalia, surprised by the delivery of the damaged monster.

"I don't know." Naofumi shook his head "But I think someone or something is fighting the monsters right now. If they're on the side of the villagers, that should relieve us from some of the heavy fighting." The question was if whatever did that to this monster and was probably fighting those at the village were to be also hostile to them too.

As they were nearing the entrance, they saw some of the villagers there, with some holding onto their tools as improvised weapons, though they were obviously wary and scared. When they saw the approaching pair, they were immediately relieved.

"You're those adventurers from before!" one of them said "Please, help her!"

"Her?" Naofumi asked, though unconsciously annoyed for the fact that there was a woman involved.

"Yes, at the start of the Wave, a strange woman came from the sky and has been fighting the monsters as well as evacuate the village but there's still people trapped here and she's only one fighter, so she may need help against all those beasts!"

"_A woman… from the sky?"_ Naofumi thought incredulous while looking upwards _"The wave?"_

Remembering now, the waves were supposed to bring in monsters from other dimensions. Maybe that woman was from other world, too? And how?

"_There's_ _no time to think about it."_ He shook his head. Right now, their job has been drastically reduced though that doesn't mean they can't slack on it, like the other heroes.

"Come on Raphtalia." Naofumi gestured her to follow him, to which she nodded, when another villager interrupted them "Wait!"

The hero and slave, annoyed and surprised respectively, turned to the man.

The villager breathed in "She's a… tamer of sorts, we think." he turned towards the village "She's been summoning some strange beasts, all linked to a chain on her arm, which fight alongside her. It's just…" Recent memories about the dynamic and varied fighting style of the stranger, never before seen in the story of that world. It seemed less the relationship between a tamer and their beast and more like one being in two bodies. Too bizarre for a simple villager to comprehend it "... forget it. Only warning you to not attack them without checking first."

"Thank you for warning us." Raphtalia politely thanked with a nod "We'll liberate this village. We swear it."

Though Naofumi wasn't as thankful or trustful as Raphtalia, he had to admit that he was intrigued _"Just who the hell is that woman?"_

The chains of fate are changing.

_AN: It just wouldn't be fair for no one of that world to not see the Legions. Now they can see the epic synchronized asskickings done by a Stando-like creature and its user. And language issues. Hope that it will end up well._

_Criticism for battle scenes please._

_Maybe an omake now, this one is a probable crossover between ROTSH and Pokémon, though connected to Renegade of Zero much time after its finished, supposedly._

**Omake:** Antimatter Shield (ROSTH x Pokémon x little of Familiar of Zero)

Three demi-human children: two girls, a weasel and a tanuki, as well as a dog boy(?), were in the plain near their village, in a distance long enough to not be discovered by the rest of the adults and children but at least safe enough to not be attacked by monsters. The question is why?

"Are you sure this will work, Keel?" the tanuki asked the dog boy(?). In front of them, there was a circle carved in the ground, as well as multiple other symbols which would be utter nonsense to most, except knowledgeable mages. How a trio of kids managed to do that is related to some old and dusty book that somehow was at Raphtalia's house, in a hidden little chest at her parents room.

While the book was too old as well as complicated to be completely understood, the three little amigos discovered that it was a summoning ritual guide, like those used to bring the Cardinal Heroes to the world.

The three were so excited that they decided to try to summon the Shield Hero, the idol they grew up with the stories and legends about him being the demi-humans protector. Though they were still kids and not fully aware of what could that entail.

"Come on, Raphtalia." Keel, the boy(?) dismissed "My father says that nothing it's impossible until you try it, so unless we do it, it is be possible to summon him!" he(?) finished with sparkles in his(?) eyes.

"I don't know, Keel." the weasel girl doubted "Shouldn't this be something a court mage should do instead of village children?"

"You too, Rifana?" Keel deflated "And I thought you wanted to meet the Shield Hero and marry him."

Rifana's face turned red "Y-yeah, it's true that I said that but…"

"Then it's been decided!"

The two girls couldn't help but sigh. When Keel's been determined to do something, he(?) will do it. Which normally ends with him(?) or the trio in trouble. Well, they were now in this together so they should as well finish it. And maybe succeeding in meeting their Hero.

"So what's next?" Raphtalia asked.

"Uhm… let's see." Keel took out the book, passing through the pages "Praying, maybe?"

"Maybe?" said the girls with deadpan looks.

"Don't look at me like that! It's what that book says! Well, more like what it can be read…" he(?) defended himself while showing the pages, which either were too erased or just difficult to understand.

Raphtalia sighed once more "Well, we wanted to summon the summon the Shield Hero, so why not? Besides, having a Hero appear by praying is very romantic." she said smiling.

"And you said I am the "girliest one"." Rifana giggled which made Raphtalia blush a little from embarrassment.

"Then praying it is!" Keel shouted while punching thto the air with passion "We just need to put all our heart in it so that the Shield Hero hears us and comes over!"

And with that pure and powerful desire, the trio went to pray in front of the summoning array, some more loud than the rest, in hopes of calling the Hero.

What they didn't know was that the dimensional walls in their world were weakening and beginning to break. That, combined with the fudged ritual and the power of their faith, made possible something that could be impossible.

The call went through the Void between worlds to a dimension mirror to another, where matter was substituted by antimatter and time doesn't flow and space was distorted.

It was a place where a god resides and who was also summoned in the past to another universe.

Another thing the friends didn't know was that the summoning of a universal level deity broke down even more the walls, furthering the Wave weeks before it was planned. Oops. Though that could be easily corrected with the powerhouse that was going to solve it.

Fitoria stopped what she was doing and looked towards the direction the summoning was taking place. Something was coming, something powerful.

It felt like one of the Heroes were coming, which also seems like the coming of the Waves. Strangely enough, she can't help but cringe, as if some dragon, and a powerful one at that, was involved.

So she ordered her filolials to prepare for the journey. It doesn't matter for her if she were to piss off a kingdom or too, she doesn't think much of those things. Besides, Melromarc's queen wouldn't think ill of her presence. What mattered right now was find out what was going on. She hopes that Dragon Emperors haven't been involved in it or…

As a matter of fact, no Dragon Emperor was involved in those events though they at least were aware of it the moment the summoning began. Gaelion, the weakest of them, was laughing merrily, much to the confusion of his adopted daughter, do to sensing the new Hero was a dragon, and one even more powerful than the Original Dragon Emperor.

As for our protagonist, "she" is now feeling the long forgotten feeling of once having a human body.

"_How nostalgic."_

While her relationship with her first summoner was literally explosive, she grew fond of the tsundere and the people she met on that world until the day they died, mainly from all age.

She may not longer be the Gandalfr or any of the other Void familiars but her pocket dimension contains multiple mementos of that time, including that old blade Derf. Since fusing him with her Griseous Orb, he's turned into an eternal companion of sorts to pass the time until the end of the universe, much more closer than her siblings and Father, and sometimes fighting together against extradimensional invaders or eldritch beings.

Now? She felt a summoning and knowing full well what could happen from last time, she went in. She wanted a vacation, anyways.

And while this time there weren't any runes binding her to a mage, she felt connected to a small shield with a blood red gem. From there, she instantly discovered that it was part of a defense mechanism created by that world to counteract a series of dimensional clashings that bring about monsters and that could eventually fuse two or more worlds, usually destroying them. Also, that shield, while having the potential to transform the user into a walking invincible fortress, bordering on physical god levels, it was severely limiting: reducing attack capability; forbidding the use of other weapons; not allowing to gain experience while alongside weapons of the same type…

Who the hell limits its protectors like that?! Oh, she will have a long chat with whoever or whatever administrates this world. At least the shield wasn't able to restrict all her immense power. Perks of being a Legendary Pokémon representing universal reflections and shadows and all that.

Speaking of the world, apart from the usual elemental physics, it was also full of magic as well as governed by a system resembling an RPG, which brings out more to mind the bullshittery of having a shield affecting Newtonian laws in both good and bad. If she were a simple human, she could have kicked the buck on a bad luck day from the lack of offensive power.

And again, she's glad that she still had her Pokémon powers. Those extrauniversal invaders won't know what hit them.

Bringing her gaze towards her "summoners": a trio of human-animal hybrid children, she couldn't help but giggle. Those three were looking like discovering Santa Claus was real or whatever inspiring figure children from other cultures and/or dimensions look up for.

So bringing a hand to her waist and smirking in a confident, arrogant and maybe a little bloodthirsty gesture, she presented herself to her soon to be first companions of this brand new world.

"Giratina, the Renegade Shield Hero here to kick some butt!"

_Yeah, if I were to bring that crossover into a standalone story, too much cathartic, awesome, badassery would happen from that non-Devil Shield._


End file.
